Shorter Brooks...it's their fault.

From David Brooks' op-ed today:

It's a huge gamble to think that the solution to chaos is liberty. But it's fitting that during the gravest crisis of his presidency, President Bush reverted to his most fundamental political belief. He began this war in Iraq repeating the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence, that our creator has endowed all human beings with the right to liberty, and the ability to function as democratic citizens. He said last night with absolute confidence that the Iraqis are democrats at heart.

Bush is betting his presidency, and the near-term future of this nation, on that central American creed.

It's an epic gamble. Because, let's face it, we don't know whether all people really do want to live in freedom. We don't know whether Iraqis have any notion of what democratic citizenship really means. We don't know whether they hear words like freedom, liberty and pluralism as deadly insults to the way of life they hold dear. We don't know who our enemies are. Are they the small minority of Baathists and jihadists, or is there a little bit of Moktada al-Sadr in every Iraqi's breast?

Brooks picks up the spin that the administration has been using for some time. They (and he) seem to want to debate some heartless strawman that thinks all human beings are not endowed with a right to liberty and the inherent ability to function democratically. Just as Bush repeatedly implies that his dissenters argue this strange point, Brooks makes it into Bush's "most fundamental political belief." Would someone please show me the speech where a Democratic contender argues against this Jeffersonian creed?
Ahh....but we are treated to that very view in Brooks' column. For, if Iraq fails to form into a liberal democracy, it is their fault, says Brooks. Maybe, he ponders, Iraqis do not share the desire we take, here in the States, for granted...the desire for self government. And the failure, if that is the result, to produce such a government does not fall on the coalition's handling of internal affairs in Iraq. No. It is the Iraqis inability (or immaturity...you choose the term) to appreciate the creed that Americans hold so dear.